Express News Service
DEHRADUN: Former Uttarakhand forest department chief Rajiv Bhartari has received a big relief from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). A single bench of the CAT headed by Justice Om Prakash on Monday dismissed the government’s review petition, following which orders were passed once again to make Rajiv Bhartari the head of the forest department.
The Circuit Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Allahabad in Nainital has upheld its February 24 order appointing Rajiv Bharti as the Chief Conservator of Forests (HOFF) while dismissing the government’s review petition in the matter. The CAT, in its February 24 order, had ordered the state government to reinstate Bhartari as the head of the forest department. After which the government filed a review petition in CAT.
Earlier, a single bench of Justice Om Prakash had disposed of a petition and stayed the order of his transfer and ordered his reinstatement to the same post. According to the case, the Uttarakhand government, through an order dated November 25, 2021, removed Chief Conservator of Forests (HOF) Rajiv Bhartari on administrative grounds for illegal tree cutting and illegal construction in The Corbett Tiger Reserve.
Against this, Rajiv Bharti had approached the High Court, after which the court had stayed the powers of the newly appointed head of the department instead of Bharti. The high court had also asked senior IFS Rajeev to approach the Nainital bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for justice in his case.
“The High Court asked CAT to reach a decision by conducting an early hearing, after which the CAT held a final hearing on February 20 and 21 and reserved the decision on February 21, 2023,” Bhartari’s lawyer Abhijay Negi told this newspaper.
Also, the court has ordered the government to appoint him back to the same post.
“The CAT has rejected the government’s review petition and has once again directed the government to appoint Rajiv Bharti to the post of PCCF,” advocate Abhijay Negi said.